In tabletop role-playing games, a location-based scenario refers to a structure where the primary focus of player action and narrative progression is tied directly to the environments the characters explore. These scenarios emphasize movement from one defined location to another, with each space offering unique encounters, information, and choices. A location-based scenario is distinct because the story unfolding at the table unfolds not through consequences of player decisions (event-based scenarios) or driven by character traits (character-based scenarios), but through the default choice “We go to another location” (player character movement). Whether venturing through a cursed manor, traversing forgotten ruins, or navigating a crumbling cityscape, the environment itself becomes the driving force behind discovery and challenge.
Exploring the Structure of Location-based Scenarios
Before delving into the implications of location-based design, it is crucial to understand its fundamental characteristics.
Structural Characteristics of Location-based Scenarios
The architecture of a location-based scenario is defined by its spatial logic and decision points. Rather than progressing through a series of narrative events, players explore a mapped environment, where each discrete location holds specific narrative or mechanical elements. Locations may contain challenges, clues, hints, resources, or dangers, and the order in which players encounter them can significantly alter their experience.
Maps serve as the backbone of these scenarios, with keyed locations providing pre-determined encounters or discoveries. Player movement – whether systematic, random, or clue/hint-driven – dictates the unfolding narrative. Not all locations are guaranteed to be explored, and this incompleteness is not a flaw but a feature. It reinforces the players’ autonomy, validating their decisions and creating a more personal story.
Importantly, while the environment offers opportunities, it should not dictate outcomes. The players’ choices regarding exploration determine which parts of the story surface. Thus, the environment provides the structure within which free will operates.
The Role of Player Choice in Location-based Scenarios
Player choice in location-based scenarios is not merely about direction – it is about consequence. Choosing which door to open or which path to follow fundamentally shapes the experience. This directional decision-making carries weight precisely because it determines access to information, rewards, and risks.
Clues and hints embedded within environments can guide decisions subtly. A bloodstained trail leading down one hallway, strange whispers emanating from behind a door, or scorch marks around an archway – all these environmental signals inform choice without imposing it. Ideally, players perceive these clues and hints and adapt their actions, thus creating a feedback loop between exploration and narrative evolution.
Meaningful consequences also emerge when players realize that not every opportunity can be pursued. This tension enhances engagement and solidifies the feeling that players are active agents within a living, responsive world.
However, randomness also has its place. Some areas might be explored without much context, leading to surprising outcomes. A balance between informed decisions and unpredictable discovery ensures that exploration remains dynamic without becoming either frustratingly opaque or tediously predictable.
Ultimately, in location-based scenarios, what players encounter – or fail to encounter – becomes part of the story itself.
The Use of Dungeons as Archetypal Location-based Scenarios
Among the myriad forms that location-based scenarios can take, the dungeon stands out as the archetypal example. A dungeon represents an enclosed environment composed of rooms, corridors, and chambers, each potentially containing hostile non-player characters, environmental hazards, treasures, or vital information.
The dungeon crawl, a specific subset of the location-based scenario, emphasizes exploration, survival, and resource management. Players navigate interconnected spaces, confront adversaries, and uncover hidden secrets. Unlike narrative-driven sequences, dungeon crawls thrive on player agency, tactical movement, and interaction with a complex environment.
A distinguishing feature of dungeons is that the locations accessible to the player characters are marked by clear leads: unexplored corridor ends and unopened doors. These leads naturally draw players further into exploration, offering structured yet open-ended decision points that maintain momentum without predetermining outcomes.
The enduring popularity of dungeon crawls stems from their clarity of structure. Players understand intuitively that every decision – to open a door, to descend a staircase, to bypass a trap – carries risks and rewards. Moreover, the modular nature of dungeons allows designers to create environments where multiple paths and outcomes coexist without the need for heavily prepped fundamentals for unfolding storylines.
However, not all dungeons are simple mazes. Sophisticated location-based scenarios can embed narrative depth within a dungeon’s structure. Discovering a fallen civilization’s secrets through its architecture, confronting moral dilemmas hidden within its chambers, or piecing together the story of a cursed family through relics scattered across different rooms – these elements elevate the dungeon crawl beyond mere combat and treasure hunting.
At its best, the dungeon as a location-based scenario exemplifies the genre’s core strengths: meaningful choice, emergent narrative, informed decisions, and the potent intersection of environment and exploration.
Final Thoughts on Location-based Scenario Design
Location-based scenarios offer a uniquely compelling framework for role-playing game sessions. By emphasizing exploration, choice, and interaction with defined environments, they create dynamic experiences where the story emerges organically from the players’ actions. Each unexplored corridor, each decision made at a fork, each clue interpreted or hint followed adds to a living tapestry of narrative possibilities.
Many of the principles discussed here are reflected in resources such as “Your Best Game Ever” (2019) by Monte Cook.
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